‘Let’s bring back the joy of reading’

IT felt like a scene from an Obama rally or the X Factor final. Screams of wild euphoria greeted the Children’s Laureate in the playground of Kentish Town C of E Primary School on Friday.

“We love you Anthony Browne,” they sang, before mobbing the illustrator and author. He had read stories with them and played his popular “shape game” he had devised as a boy with his brother where one player draws a random shape and the other has to make it into something else.

Children love Mr Browne for his picture book stories – an art that he feels is under threat from pushy parents and a competitive reading culture.

“Picture books are being dragged away from children sometimes by parents who are worried about their children’s development,” he said. “But that’s a great shame because it’s so important that children actually enjoy the process of reading. It’s like a three-way conversation – between the child, the book and the parent who is reading it. Sales are down and I know some very good illustrators who are finding it really difficult at the moment.” 

Mr Browne grew up “in a pub” in Sheffield, Yorkshire. He has “vague memories” of standing on the table in the pub telling stories to the punters. “I remember in particular a story I would tell about ‘Big Dan Tackle’,” he said. “He was a Desperate Dan sort of character, but a northern version.”

Mr Browne entertained ambitions of becoming a journalist, a cartoonist and a boxer but, after encouragement from his parents, continued to draw. “I went on to do medical illustrations, of operations, for hospitals and then began designing greeting cards,” he said. “I’m not quite sure why I began writing children’s books – it just happened but it came to me quite naturally.” He added: “I think people who write or draw for children are somehow in touch with their childhood. I wouldn’t say we are childish, but just creative, and the children relate to that.”

As children’s laureate, Mr Browne replaces the poet Michael Rosen, a vociferous education campaigner who has criticised the target culture and in particular Sats exams. 

“I have done a lot of interviews and it has been a busy time so far,” he said. “But I don’t want to be Michael Rosen. I don’t want to go around telling people how to teach. What I will do is promote creativity and make sure that children are enjoying reading.”

He added: “I do think the focus of the curriculum, on results, has curbed children’s creativity. It was different when I was at school – there wasn’t the same desperation to get to the next stage. But it is starting to change for the better. You can see that things are moving in a positive direction by what you see in this school.”

And here’s a little exclusive for all Mr Browne fans...

“It’s my third attempt at it,” he said, “but my next book is something I started 20 years ago as a child. It’s a little book with a talking monkey that asks how ‘How Do I Feel...?’ I’ve been drawing a picture for it every day.”
TOM FOOT